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PHILOSOPHIC OBSERVATIONS 


ON THE 


RELATIONS OF THE GANGLIO-NERYOUS SYSTEM 


TO THE 


IMMATERIAL SOUL OF MAN. 


WILLIAM MORRIS. 

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\ /, Mo__ 

' ^Afaro*? 


“Our knowledge is a mole-hill, removed from the mountain of our ignorance, 
rtt the rate of a few grains in the course of a year.”—A xon. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

GAUT & YOLK MAR, 609 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1860. 







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PSUKIKOS 


PHILOSOPHIC OBSERVATIONS 


ON THE 


RELATIONS OF THE GANGLIO-NERVOUS SYSTEM 


TO THE 


IMMATERIAL SOUL OF MAN. 



BY 

. / 

WILLIAM MORRIS. 


“ Onr knowledge is a mole-hill, removed from the mountain of our ignorance, 
at the rate of a few grains in the course of a year.”—A non. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

GAUT & YOLKMAR, 609 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1860. 




J/3l 

\ 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
WILLIAM MORRIS, 

in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylva. 





PSUKIKOS. 


The genus Homo , or Man, is properly a prime object 
of interest to the Naturalist, and also to every well- 
cultivated mind. Man, considered as a duality , consists 
of an organized body and an immaterial soul. Essen¬ 
tially considered, Man is a soul—an immaterial soul, 
whose material organism is its proper instrumentality 
and manifestation as a dweller upon the earth. 

“ What is the soul?” This question is sometimes oc¬ 
casioned by conceit; sometimes by skepticism; and 
sometimes by admiration, as accompanied by a philoso¬ 
phic conviction in respect of the limitations assigned to 
the capabilities of the human mind. To this question 
no man of mature intelligence and wisdom will presume 
to offer a reply. Such a man is aware that human 
knowledge is in all respects but circumstantial and re¬ 
lative; and that positive or absolute knowledge, is 
neither possessed, nor attainable in this present world. 
The essential nature of things we neither know nor can 
know. 

What? How? and Why? —when used in relation to the 
nature of things, imply questions before which true 
wisdom will bow the head in silence, and with a mo¬ 
desty that may well put to shame the conceit of half- 
tutored minds. 

“ What is matter?” No man can answer this question; 
even as no man can answer the question, u What is the 
immaterial soul?” No man has ever seen, or smelt, or 



4 


PSUKIKOS. 


tasted, or felt matter; even as no man has ever seen, or 
smelt, or tasted a soul; but every man who is not either 
demented or morally debased will confess that he has 
felt and does feel a soul. 

By observation and experience we are acquainted 
with certain properties of matter; and by observation 
and consciousness we are Acquainted with the attributes 
and operations of the immaterial and intellectual soul. 
In the former case, even as in the latter, we do not 
know or believe the why , the how , or the what; but 
merely and only the so. And we believe that so it is — 
whatever may be the fact in view—on the evidence of 
testimony, of observation, or of consciousness: and 
when these several kinds of evidence are, each and all, 
wanting, a wise man, if inquired of, will answer, with 
the true modesty of wisdom, by saying, “ I do not know.” 

It is common to say, as with the authority of an ora¬ 
cle, that “ knowledge is power;” but so,;;also, may it be 
said, that ignorance is power. In very many instances 
ignorance . is of greater power than knowledge to 
influence the masses of mankind. Confident ignorance 
is, oftentimes, far more influential than considerate know¬ 
ledge in its effects on the popular mind. And it is a 
questionable compliment to the memory of Bacon, 
when the seemingly oracular utterance, u knowledge is 
power” is regarded as a characteristic maxim of his 
philosophic mind. 

Knowledge is in many cases more apparent than real. 
True knowledge is more than a mere acquaintance with 
the contents of a library; and learning does not consist 
in a mere acquaintance wdth words, or with the lan¬ 
guages of other nations, or the thoughts of other men. 
True knowledge is combined with wisdom, and wisdom 


PSUKIKOS. 


5 


includes an acquaintance with realities , and with their 
laws and relations, their adaptations, uses and ends. 

The preceding remarks are preliminary to a series of 
brief notices and suggestions respecting the relations 

OF THE GANGLIO-NERVOUS SYSTEM TO THE IMMATERIAL 

soul of man ; in the activities and manifestations of 
sentient and intellectual life. 

We have the evidence of divine testimony for believing 
that the soul of man is not matter , nor the result of a 
certain organization of matter, as inspired with electric 
vapor or atmospheric air. The soul of man—while being 
immaterial—is a substantial reality— a real entity ; hav¬ 
ing its proper qualities or attributes inherent in itself. 
Man can slay the body> but he cannot slay the soul. 
What the soul is in its essential nature and necessary 
constitution, the eternal Creator of the soul only knows. 
With this, and such like inquiries, therefore, we have 
not to do. And our present concern is with the rela¬ 
tions subsisting between the ganglio-nervous system 
and the soul in the state and history of man’s consitu- 
tional life.* 

The nervous economy, as a whole, may be described 
as a system of dualism , whose dissimilar departments 
are involved, each in the other; and in which each is 
complimentary to the other. These two dissimilar 
departments are known as the cerebrospinal, and the 
sympathetic or sensory. 

The grand centre and source of the former is fami- 


* I pass over the facts of comparative anatomy, which offer very much that 
is confirmatory of remarks about to be made. It will also be observable, in the 
following pages, that I write merely as an amateur; for the purpose of suggesting 
one or two subjects for investigation, and presenting a few particulars of gene¬ 
ral interest; and not as presuming to instruct the members of a learned pro¬ 
fession in the mysteries of medical science, or the practice of the healing art. 



6 


PSUKIKOS. 


liarly known as the brain ; but the grand centre or 
source of the latter—which is the solar plexus —is not so 
familiar to the public mind. The fact of the relations 
of the brain to the mind has been largely considered and 
is commonly known; but, the equally important fact 
of the relations of the solar plexus to the mind has not 
been so well considered, and is not so commonly known. 

But, of late years, Anatomists and Physiologists, of 
the highest order, have engaged in persistent researches 
into the relations of the solar plexus to the entire living 
economy, and their researches have been rewarded with 
deserved success. Some of these scientific investigators 
already speak of the solar plexus as the “ brain of organic 
life;” while, in popular language, they speak of the con¬ 
tents of the cranium as the “ brain of animal life” They 
may be induced to modify and to extend this termi¬ 
nology, and, also, the ideas which it represents, when 
their investigations shall have become more fully 
matured. 

To speak in general terms—“the brain and nervous 
system” are sometimes popularly conceived of under 
the simile of an inverted tree, whose root is in the 
cranium, wh6se trunk is the spinal column; and whose 
branches, pervading the body, reach down to the tips 
of the toes. With the same propriety the department 
of this general economy, known as the ganglionic, vesi¬ 
cular, etc., may be compared to a vine —planted on a 
fruitful hill—whose root is the solar plexus, whence shoots 
proceed down to the organs of reproduction; while the 
more vigorous and knotty extensions of this fruitful 
vine creep up the spinal column in one direction, and 
up through the midst of the structure in the other, and 
uniting in the cerebellum luxuriate over the same; and 


PSUKIKOS. 


7 


mantling, with a layer of foliage, the organism of resul¬ 
tant intellectuality—take hold of, and unite with, tho 
organs of external perception, or of seeing and hearing, 
of taste and smell. And from the generous product— 
the electric nectar —of this ganglionic vine , the health, and 
vigor, and activity, and cheerfulness of the man arise. 

The solar plexus—with its system of ganglia, and the 
organic and psychological relations which it sustains— 
has been a subject of increasing interest to my own 
mind during the last sixteen years. It is, therefore, 
with much and grateful respect that I regard the re¬ 
searches of enlightened anatomists and physiologists, in 
this department of labor, for the discovery and an¬ 
nouncement of scientific truth. 

The man who shall fully disclose to the medical pro¬ 
fession, and to the public mind, that the solar plexus is 
the grand centre of psychical* existence —the original or 
prime centre and source of organic and sentient and 
conscious life; even as the cerebrum is the centre and 
organism of intellectual, phenomenal and practical life; 
or, in other words, that the solar plexus is the central resi¬ 
dence of the immaterial soul of man —the practical philo¬ 
sopher who shall fully disclose this, in accordance with 
the requirements of true science, will deservedly be 
regarded, by all candid and noble minds, as having 
attained to a status equal, at least to that of Harvey, 
and others whose philosophic fame has the civilized 
world for its sphere: for he will have rendered an 
invaluable contribution to science, and will have con¬ 
ferred on practitioners and patients a favor that will bo 
esteemed a boon. He will have advanced Therapeutics 


* I use the word, psychical, in its most radical and comprehensive sense. 



8 


PSUKIKOS. 


—from being, comparatively, an affair of empiricism— 
to the firm and honorable position of a natural science; 
taking rank among the acknowledged and demonstrable 
sciences, to be acknowledged and honored, even as they 
are honored. 

He will have done more; for he will have rebuked 
and put to shame the materialistic skepticism, too com¬ 
monly associated with anatomical and phrenological 
ideas; and, in some instances, with theological (?) specu¬ 
lation; which is so frequently crudely and offen¬ 
sively obtruded on public notice by a miscellaneous class 
of peripatetics whose walks have a wider range than the 
Lyceum at Athens would afford. 

By an exhibition of the facts and laws and inductions 
required, he will disclose and establish the profoundly 
interesting truth, that the immaterial soul of man—con¬ 
tained at the first in a microscopic “ spermatozoon ,” and 
lodged in its “germ cell” in utero —is endowed with 
wondrous adaptations and capabilities, which are not 
recognized in the received doctrines of psychology, and 
are not “dreamed of” in the most approved “philosophy 
of the human mind.” 

He will show that the immaterial soul is endowed with 
the powers requisite for originating and elaborating a 
suitable organism for its own uses and manifestation in 
this visible world—an organism which, in its unity and 
its several parts, shall express the inherent qualities and 
characteristics of that same immaterial soul, as so many 
distinctive, personal attributes in the state and'history 
of individual life. He will, in this way, show that the 
soul is its own builder, for constructing and keeping in 
repair its own material house, in proximate conformity 
to the original design of the Divine Architect, by whom 


PSUKIKOS. 


9 


it is thus endowed. lie will show this living house to 
be furnished, in part, as a laboratory , with its mill, alem¬ 
bic, and all the requisite apparatus, appliances and 
means; because that the soul is its own chemist —both 
analytical and synthetical chemist—and, also, as the 
secondary agent, is its own skilful 'physician for the health 
and healing of the body, by means of chemical pro¬ 
cesses and results —the physician, in whose presence and 
in relation to whose practice all other physicians are, 
and should know themselves to be, but so many subor¬ 
dinates and menials in the mysteries of the therapeutic 
art. 

Such are the capabilities of the immaterial soul, as 
originally endowed by the Creator and Preserver of 
men. And the practical philosopher who, from the 
arcana of man’s organic and psychical nature, shall wisely 
and scientifically bring these realities to light, will prove 
himself a benefactor of the medical profession and of 
the human race. He may, perhaps, be reminded of the 
unworthy estimate formed of the discoveries of Galileo, 
of Harvey, and of others, when their respective par¬ 
ticulars were first made known. He may, even, be 
decried by inferior minds, by men who prefer an artifi¬ 
cial wreath, demised by defunct authorities, rather than 
a chaplet of living amaranth from the garden of induc¬ 
tive science, as cultivated by personal industry and the 
genius of an original mind—but, by nature’s noble men, 
he will be highly honored; and by an appreciative 
public he will be justly admired and esteemed. 

The solar plexus, the central residence of the imma¬ 
terial soul—the grand sensorium —is the real heart 
of the man. It is so as compared and contrasted with 
the muscular organ—the double action force-pump— 


10 


PSUKIKOS. 


which is incorrectly called “the heart/'* even in the 
teachings of scientific man. 

Some unwise persons, including certain men of diplo¬ 
matic rank, have smiled and sneered at the ancient 
words of wisdom; because of the manner in which 
those words speak of “ the heart of man” Such persons 
tell us that “much more wisdom and knowledge would 
have been evinced, if that which is ascribed to the heart 
had been ascribed to the head. Great and wise men ! 
Their minds are occupied with that tough muscle, the 
double action force-pump, and not with that tender 
ganglion, which is the grand centre and source of sym¬ 
pathetic or sensory life; and whose subordinate ganglia 
are found, in part, even in their own chosen idol, the 
head. They are too wise to understand that the thoughts 
which are elaborated in the head are originated in the 
solar plexus or heart. Or, to use a figure, and also to 
modify the ideas expressed, while the “chamber of 
imagery" is in the head, the prime factory of images is 
in the heart. They are too wise to consider that affec¬ 
tions, emotions, desires, etc., do not descend from the 
cranial cupola, but ascend from the very centre of our 
constitutional life; that we are not conscious of our 
psychical feelings in our head, but that in our heart wo 
sensibly feel; and that we are not conscious , even of our 
thoughts, in the brain itself; but that the sensation and 
consciousness of thinking is in the eyeball, which, by 
means of its ophthalmic and optic ganglia, and other 


* In view of the important functions and relations of this muscular organ, I 
use the freedom to suggest, in the way of inquiry only, whether it may not be 
distinguished by a characteristic name ? May it not with propriety be called the 
propellitum; seeing that, by its proper action, the sanguine stream of life is in¬ 
voluntarily and continuously propelled. 



PSUKIKOS. 


It 


connected ganglia, is in direct “telegraphic” communica¬ 
tion with the solar plexus or heart. Such men may yet 
become truly wise. 

The ancient Chaldeans applied their terms bahl and 
lehb to psychical and metaphysical uses; and in this 
usage of words they referred to the solar plexus as to 
the heart of man, the centre and source of affection, 
courage, desire, emotion and thought; and, at the same 
time, they showed themselves to be fully aware, that the 
elaboration and maturity of thought are in the chamber 
of ideal representation—the head . 

The ancient Hebrews applied their terms lehb and 
leh-bahb precisely as the Chaldeans did their similar or 
identical word; the ideal meaning of which terms, in 
both instances alike, appears to be a centre of com¬ 
mingling and of active force. The Hebrews described 
the lehb —the solar plexus or heart—as having become 
attenuated—’“melted”—and flaccid in the midst of the 
viscera by means of continuous mental exercise and ex¬ 
cessive grief. They spoke familiarly of the solar plexus, 
or heart, as being comforted by food and nutrition; and 
in this way they recognized the real heart as the active 
and effective centre of the nutritive system, and thus 
of organic life. And in this relation they described 
certain men as proud, because in prime physical condi¬ 
tion; when, through a high degree of nutrition, the lehb 
or solar plexus had become incrassated, and resembled 
the suet of the loins. And every enlightened and 
genuine anatomist, physiologyst and physician will at 
once perceive that the contrasted states of the solar 
plexus, and the opposite causes assigned, are in accord¬ 
ance with the facts and laws of Nature and of physio¬ 
logical mutations; and, also, that they arc scientifically 
described. 


12 


PSUKIKOS. 


Through the ancient Hebrews many other important 
notices may be derived, in relation to the physiological 
and physical history of man.* 

The ancient Greeks used their words hear and kardia 
to denote the epigastric region or its centre; and also 
the sensible and effective centre of the nutritive system, 
and also to signify the centre and source of affection, 
desire, emotion and thought.' And the Latins used the 
word cor to denote the real heart —the origin of indi¬ 
vidual mind ; the central organism, whence affection, 
courage, wisdom, etc., primarily arise. 


* For instance: Not to mention their received ideas of generation, which are 
only now being attained by means of the most enlightened researches of 
scientific men. Their royal and inspired Poet has enshrined the true philosophy 
of the human creation in one of his most sublime odes, to which I refer, at pre¬ 
sent, not as a Theologian, but as a Naturalist. 

In this ode the royal Poet celebrates the perfections of the Deity, especially 
His Omniscience and Omnipresence. The mystery of gestation, and of his own 
embryo existence, as included therein, is duly noticed, first. He then traces up 
his personal being to the original creation of the first man; and, addressing the 
Deity, he says, “I will praise thee, for I am awfully, wonderfully made; thy 
works are marvelous, and this my soul greatly knows; my undiffused strength 
or vital substance was not concealed from thee, when I was made— or prepared 
—in secret— in a mystery, and variously embroidered, in the lower parts of the 
earth; thine eyes did intently behold my unevolved globule, and in thy book— 
of design —the whole— of my organs —were written, as timely they would be 
moulded, and not one of them then was.” 

The thoughts here presented are these: The vital substance, or immaterial 
soul , of the first man, was created in the lower parts of the earth; this newly 
created soul was contained within the unevolved globule—the primary “ sper. 
matozoon,” within the vesicle of evolution—and this “sperm cell” being fur¬ 
nished with its requisite “germ cell,” in the lower parts of the earth, as in a 
matrix, the organized being was developed in the variegated embroidery j 
which consists of the ganglia, nerves, muscles, viscera, arteries; veins, cartilage 
and bones, with the external coverings, membraneous finishings and the crown 
of glossy hair. 

The inspired Legislator of the Hebrews informs us that the first man, when 
matured, was taken out of the earth by his Creator; who then caused the 
man's psychical vitality to become robust and manifest, by breathing or blowing 
into his nostrils the atmospheric air; which is significantly called “the breath 
of life,” or of lives; that is, of vigorous and manifested life, and which is held 
in common by all creatures that breathe. 



PSUKIKOS. 


13 


The preceding usages of language on the part of the 
ancient Chaldeans, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans, are 
but examples of the common usages of mankind, in re¬ 
lation to both the organism and the metaphysics of man, 
as taught by one common nature; and unshackled by an 
incorrect and technical terminology, all nations express 
themselves in the same manner, or in similar ways. 

An agreeable and touching instance of this is inter¬ 
woven with the history of maternal love. The mother 
knows because she feels , whence come the gushings of 
her warmest affections, when suddenly informed of some 
calamity, or signal prosperity that has happened to her 
beloved child; and this well-spring of affection she calls 
her heart , while she lays her hand over the solar plexus, 
and thus instinctively indicates the grand sensorium — 
the central residence of her soul. And should some 
verbal critic—who has “a little learning” which is said 
to be “a dangerous thing”—should such an one say to 
her, “ That is not your heart, for so the doctors have 
decreed:” she would instantly exclaim, “ I do not care a 
fig for the faculty, because I know very well where I feel!” 

In all ages and countries the unsophisticated mind 
has readily distinguished between the psukee or soul, the 
radical life, and the zoe, the phenomenal life, and the bios, 
the practical and historical life of the man. From 
what has been suggested in the preceding pages, it will 
appear that, constitutionally speaking, our physical 
health' and vigor, and our mental ability, tranquillity 
and cheerfulness depend chiefly, not to say entirely, on 
the ganglio-nervous system being sustained in its nor¬ 
mal state, for the proper uses of the psukee, the pro¬ 
cesses of the zoe, and the utilities of the bios or our 
practical history among men. 


14 


PSUKIROS. 


In the same way it will appear that an abnormal state 
of the ganglio-nervous system is the chief occasion of all 
descriptions of functional disorder and of organic disease . 
This will be the more apparent when it is considered 
that all the organic functions—the nutritive for instance 
—and all the activities of personal life are sustained and 
carried forward by means of nervo-electricity, or, more 
specifically speaking, by means of ganglio-electricity ,* for 
it is rationally conceived that the electric or vital forces 
of the animal economy are first developed by means of 
the ganglia , etc., and then conveyed and distributed by 
means of the nerves; and it will be equally apparent 
that whatever tends to exhaust unduly the ganglio- 
electricity must, to the same extent, prove injurious to 
the general healthj for the general supply is unduly 
diminished, and the ganglionic system itself is at¬ 
tenuated or worn down. There are many known causes 
and occasions of “ nervous exhaustion” and its attendant 
ills. None of these, however, arise from the proper 
labors of agriculture, or any other kind of healthy toil. 
But it will be readily understood that intense and conti¬ 
nuous mental application does, of necessity, exhaust the 
vital forces, and attenuate or wear down the ganglio- 
nervous system; seeing that its demands are excessive 
on the solar plexus and the brain, and in this way the 
nutritive system is deprived of its proper energy, and 
dyspepsia ., atrophy, etc., ensue. 

The mental processes consume but do not supply, in 
any degree, the ganglio-electricity, which is derived 


* To restore the equilibrium of the ganglio-nervous system, in respect to its 
electric forces, is the beneficent object of sleep; and this object will be especially 
contemplated by a wise and skilful physician, whatever course of treatment ho 
may pursue. 



PSUKIKOS, 


15 


entirely from the proper aliment supplied and from tlie 
air we breathe. The development of this is the most 
important department of the soul’s internal chemistry; 
and it is this department that is directly enfeebled by 
excessive activity and continuous application of the 
mind. 

The miserable experiences—the morbid excitement, 
depression, gloom and weariness of life—‘that accom¬ 
pany a state of nervous and organic exhaustion, need 
not be described. They are, more or less, known to all 
who are intensely interested .and occupied in the re¬ 
searches of science and literature, the concerns of com¬ 
mercial and financial business, or the affairs of profes¬ 
sional and political life. And many are the well known 
instances of blighted genius, and brooding melancholy, 
and untimely death, that have resulted from intense and 
continuous mental application; which had produced a 
morbid attenuation of the ganglio-nervous system, and 
consequent loss of vitality, vigor and tone. And among 
the many who have fallen on the attractive but perilous 
path of mental activity and concentration, the namo of 
Hugh Miller will be mentioned with a mournful inte¬ 
rest by every reflective and considerate mind. 

The subject under immediate notice is invested with 
a high degree of interest, from the well known fact that 
the most active causes of ganglio-nervous exhaustion 
are characteristic of the present time. Such is tho 
case with the civilized world at large, and particularly 
so with this great and United Nation on the broad con¬ 
tinent of the Western World. Here, inventive genius, 
commercial enterprise, financial calculation, professional 
pursuit, philosophic investigation, and the excitements 
incident to republican institutions, are at their utmost 


16 


PSUKIKOS. 


tension, and occasion a corresponding exhaustion of ner¬ 
vous force. And besides the accompanying and result¬ 
ant ills, which are consistent with strict morality, it 
must be admitted, by intelligent and observant minds 
that many instances and-various forms of intemperance 
—in the use of narcotics and " stimulants —have been su¬ 
perinduced by a state of “ nervous exhaustion/' and the 
accompanying, miserable sensations felt at the grand 
centre of sensory and mental life. These miserable sen¬ 
sations have, so to speak, craved relief, and a mistaken 
and enfeebled judgment has had recourse to that which 
has but aggravated the disease, and produced the most 
humiliating and sorrowful results. But, apart from 
all such deplorable cases of fatuity, the morbid affections 
resulting from excessive mental activity and concentra¬ 
tion are many, and are very well known. An interest¬ 
ing inquiry may, therefore, with propriety be made. 

By what method may the morbid affections of the 
ganglio-nervous economy be most rationally and effec¬ 
tually removed ? 

To this inquiry the statement of a few first principles 
will suffice for an immediate but partial reply. 

1. The over-demand made on the mental organism 
must, of course, he corrected; and the mind must bo 
allowed a proper degree of relaxation and repose; ac¬ 
companied by muscular exercise of a suitable kind. 

2. A primary object is, not to encumber and embarrass 
the immaterial soul, in relation to its organic activities 
and processes; always bearing in mind that the soul is 
the internal chemist and physician to whom the art and 
mystery of healing does properly pertain. Being guided 
by this principle, it will be a prime object, not to intro¬ 
duce into the stomach a quantity of crude medicaments, 


PSUKIKOS. 


17 


which require vital force for their analysis or digestion 
before they can be of any avail. 

3. The next object is to select from the materia medica 
the most suitable substances, and having obtained their 
pure elemental properties, to administer these in pro¬ 
portional combination, and in due quantity, as most 
fully adapted to restore the internal chemical apparatus 
to a state of sanative operation and force. 

4. Any course of effective treatment must needs bo 
adopted with as direct a regard to the state and require¬ 
ments of the solar plexus or heart, as to the cerebral 
organism or head* 

These particulars being premised, I would, with all 
due deference, suggest—as the result of observation, 
and of personal experience—that composite homoeopathy 
offers a rational method of treatment for the various 
forms of ganglio-nervous disease. 

But here a few explanatory remarks are required, 
first, in relation to homoeopathy per se; and then in relation 
to composite homoeopathy, as a decided and philoso¬ 
phical advance upon the theory of Hahnemann, in as 
far as the doctrine of simples or of medical monadism 
may be concerned. 

The phrase homoeopathy, as here used, is not intended 
to represent the ideas of casting in a gallon of medicinal 


* But independently of all other modes of treatment, the skilful Physician 
will not overlook the importance of treating such cases with a wise, courteous 
and benevolent regard to the dictates and maxims of psychology, as legitimately 
understood. It will, of course, be perceived that I do not speak of the preten¬ 
sions of a charlatan who claims to be possessed of an occult science, which he 
attempts to dignify with the names of Psychology, Biology, etc.; but that what 
is here intended is the adoption of a course which is metaphysically suited to 
arouse the immaterial soul to an agreeable and confident activity in favor of the 
relief and restoration desired and sought to be attained. 



18 


PSUKIKOS. 


tincture at the Falls of Niagara, and afterwards obtain- 
ing a portion of the waters of Lake Ontario for the cure 
of disease; nor to represent any class of ideas of which 
this illustration may be an exaggerated type. In medi¬ 
cal practice, as in most other respects, the via media is 
the path of wisdom, the u golden mean.” That which 
is intended may be thus explained. 

1. There is truth in the homoeopathic maxim, similia 
similibus curantur —like cures like. The principle of this 
maxim was acknowledged long before the theory of 
homoeopathy had been conceived: the scorched finger 
had been held near the fire, and the cold of snow had 
been applied to the frost-bitten nose. 

2. The truth involved in the above maxim may be ex¬ 
pressed by saying, that the soul can use a small quantity 
of certain physical properties to remove symptomatic 
ailments, similar to those which a larger quantity of the 
same properties would produce in a healthy subject, by 
injuriously affecting the internal chemistry, tissues, etc. 

3. Smallness of dose—within reasonable limits—is in 
accordance with the laws of Nature, as observable in 
both the vegetable and the animal world. 

I. It is founded on the known indefinite divisibility 
of matter—each particle retaining the characteristic 
properties of the mass. The truth of this is pleasantly 
perceived in the perfume of, comparatively, distant 
flowers; and a less agreeable proof is supplied by the 
odor of a mere particle of musk; and an audible proof is 
witnessed, when an invisible atom of snuff has floated 
on the atmosphere into an unsophisticated nose. 

II. It is determined by the limitations of Nature, as 
to the appropriative powers of the vital principle, in the 
instances of both animals and plants. These limitations 


PSUKIKOS. 


19 


are recognized, for example, in the gradual processes by 
which animal tissues and their resultant organism are 
formed. The idea of appropriation in the mass is alien 
to the laws and functions of organic life. 

III. It is justified by the well known fact that minute 
portions of certain kinds of matter, when introduced 
into the human system, are productive of sensible and 
extensive effects; the familiar instances of this are, 
those of vaccination and the sting of a bee. 

IV. It is approved by the analysis of mineral waters, 
and their known and acknowledged curative effects. 
But while the analysis of mineral waters, and their 
acknowledged curative effects approve smallness of 
dose, as in the practice of legitimate homoeopathy per 
se, the reasonableness and claims of composite homoeo¬ 
pathy are thereby illustrated and confirmed. 

Composite Homoeopathy recognizes the preceding prin¬ 
ciples, but it disowns the doctrine of simples or of 
medical monadism, and maintains that it is incorrect 
and unphilosophical to affirm that “only one medicinal 
substance, at a time, can act within the living system 
for the production of a curative effect.” 

The enlightened advocates of Composite Homoeopathy 
maintain that this doctrine of medical monadism in¬ 
volves a threefold error, or disregard of Nature, and its 
laws. It is maintained that, 

1. The truth is overlooked, that it is not the medi¬ 
cinal substance—administered homoeopathically—that 
acts;* but it is the soul that is active, and appropriates 


* It is not questioned that material substances may have a chemical action 
within the living economy, as for example the action of an alkali and an acid— 
but the above doctrine of the action of the immaterial soul is maintained to be 
philosophically true, whatever chemical actions and changes may in this way 
take place. 



20 


PSUKIKOS. 


to its remedial uses the medicinal properties which are 
properly supplied. 

2. There is a disregard of the obvious fact that sim¬ 
ples, strictly so called, are unknown in the economies of 
nutritive provision and of organic life.* 

Itis commonly remarked, that physical “ nature abhors 
a vacuum,” and with equal propriety it may be said 
that vital nature abhors simples or monadism, or all 
elemental forms. 

The sunshine, and the rain, the atmospheric air, and 
the crystal stream, each is a unity composed of three ; and 
in all the forms and departments of vivifying and nutri¬ 
tive nature a similar arrangement of composition obtains. 
None of the gaseous elements, nor of the intermediate 
elements, nor of the solid basis, are supplied to vital 
nature in their primary or elemental forms; but instead 
of these we find hydrates, nitrates, oxides, carbonates, 
chlorates, phosphates, silicates, sulphates, etc., wisely 
prepared. And they are so prepared because that in 
composition only are the elemental bases of matter 
adapted to the uses of the vital principle, and for the 
nutriment of organic life. 

3. The elective powers of the soul —with which it is 
endowed in common with the life-principle of every 
animal and vegetable on earth—are overlooked when 
it is affirmed that, “the presence of a second medicinal 
substance must, of necessity, nullify the curative effects 
of a first;” and that, “ therefore every kind of medicinal 
composition is at variance with the true principles of 


* It is, of course, admitted that there are eases in which some one substance 
or some one natural compound is all that may be required; but still the above 
statement is true, and any apparent exception only serves to cause its truth to 
be the more clearly seen. 



PSUKIKOS. 


21 


medical science, and being so is to be disapproved; and 
that, “a patient ought not to be allowed any article of 
diet in which any medicinal property is contained.” 

A wise caution should, of course, be observed in avoid¬ 
ing every thing—both in the diet allowed and otherwise 
—that would encumber and embarrass the soul, in its 
chemical elaborations; and the introduction of discord¬ 
ant medicinal properties cannot be too strongly con¬ 
demned. But it is alleged by the advocates of compo¬ 
site homoeopathy, that, in the above propositions, a 
fallacy is unwittingly assumed to be a law of nature • 
and that this can be very readily shown. 

For instance, it is shown by the analysis of those 
articles of diet which are esteemed the most simple, and 
and are therefore the most approved. The well known 
analyses of milk and eggs, of poultry and mutton, and 
of beef and wheaten bread, etc., will readily occur to an 
intelligent reader, as including a variety of medicinal 
substances with which—in the food supplied—the soul 
has to deal, in the way of both analytical and syntheti¬ 
cal chemistry, for the purposes'of nutrition and of health. 
As the life-principle in each plant selects from the soil 
those nutritive provisions which are adapted for the 
formation of its own distinctive body; so the immaterial 
soul selects from the aliment, etc., which is supplied, 
those substances and properties which are suitable for 
nutrition and repair; and, also, for the purposes of 
symptomatic relief. And in this way only can we ac¬ 
count for the fact, that a great variety of means and 
methods have been found to be similarly effectual in the 
removal of disease and the restoration of organic health. 
The soul is the physician, and to the inductive teachings 


22 


PSUKIKOS. 


which it supplies all subordinate physicians may wisely 
give heed. 

Composite Homoeopathy originated in an intelligent 
regard to the harmonies and unities which the Materia 
Medica includes. It has well considered the mutual 
relations of various medicinal substances and pro¬ 
perties, and the proportional composition of these 
for the end immediately in view. In a word: Com¬ 
posite Homoeopathy prefers and adopts a unison of 
medicinal properties, prepared on the harmonious prin¬ 
ciple of chords in music, and suggestive of the natural 
and beneficent union of principles, and of colors, in 
light. 

This medical system I have preferred for the last six¬ 
teen years, and its remedial adaptations and value are 
with me facts experimentally proved. For the relief and 
removal of sufferings, arising from morbid conditions of 
the ganglio-nervous system, it may well he adopted, and 
if adopted will, as I judge, be preferred. 

It may be permissible that I should offer, as an illus¬ 
tration my own case. A continuous course of studies, 
for a number of years, had, to a certain extent, pro¬ 
duced the ordinary effects of extreme mental applica¬ 
tion, by attenuating the prime centres of organic and 
of intellectual life, and hence arose a felt and urgent 
necessity of personal relief. Having a well founded 
confidence in relation to Composite Homoeopathy, and 
being well acquainted with the Materia Medica of the 
homoeopathic school, I selected certain substances of 
ascertained harmonious relations, and approved uses, 
and combined their essential properties in proportional 
unity, and was gladdened by the possession of a medi- 


PSUKIKOS. 2S 

cmal resource, from which the desired relief could he 
obtained.* 

Respecting the most desirable mode of application, I 
found that a choice lay between reaching the ganglio- 
nervous economy through the stomach, or through the 
papillae of the tongue, or by absorption, through the 
papillae of the true skin. The last named method was 
adopted; and as absorption takes place very readily 
through the contact of liquids , with the skin, the diluted 
liquid form is that which I use. This preparation is ap¬ 
plied to the centre of the epigastric arch—over the 
solar plexus —and to the forehead, the entire arch of the 
head, round the base of the brain and down the course 
of the spine. In this way the desired relief has been 
obtained. The nutritive system invigorated, the 
ganglio-nervous system restored to its former tone, and 
mental clearness, tranquillity and vigor—at the age of 
nearly three-score years—are the much valued results. 

If the preceding pages of mere outline remarks, shall 
be the means of exciting, in any degree, an increased 
attention to the relations of the ganglio-nervous econo¬ 
my to the immaterial soul of man, and of vindicating, 
to thoughtful minds, the ancient words of Wisdom, in 
the manner in which those words speak of the “heart of 
man/' and if they shall contribute, in some small de- 


* This preparation I am accustomed to call my Eucephalos—literally a good or 
cheerful head— seeing that the ancient Greeks used the word to denote a medi¬ 
cine suitable for benefiting the head. I notice this circumstance here, because 
that a request has been made of me—to which I have acceded—for the use of 
my private Formula, from which to prepare the Eucephalos, as an article of com¬ 
merce, for general use. But a sense of propriety induces me to state that the 
commercial enterprise, in this matter, is not mine. I have the privilege of being 
able to say, in the words of Professor Agassiz, “ I cannot afford time for the 
purpose of making money,” being otherwise, and from decided preference, 
habitually engaged. 



24 


PSUKIKOS. 


gree, towards restoring to the solar plexus its orignal titlo 
to be acknowledged as the real heart—the grand senso- 
rium or central residence of the immaterial and active soul ; 
these will be, to my own mind, most grateful and satis¬ 
fying consequences of the efforts in which I have pre¬ 
sumed to engage. And my desire of subserving, ac¬ 
cording to my limited ability, the interests of Truth — 
sacred and scientific Truth—is now offered as my 
apology for stepping out of my proper sphere, and 
seeming to trespass, in amateur style, on the domain of 
a learned profession, which includes in its ranks many 
of the most comprehensive and cultivated minds, who 
are justly entitled to the respect due to superior intelli¬ 
gence and scientific worth. 



Jan 23 183 


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